I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.

10 Fun Facts About Lettuce!

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosureBy Mavis Butterfield on January 11, 2019 · 9 Comments

I like produce. I like to grow it. I like to eat it. I like to create recipes with it. I’m also kind of a nerd and like to get to know my produce. I like learning new or fun tidbits of info about the produce I’m growing/eating/baking. If you’re a weirdo like me then buckle up for this new series as I dive into a plethora of produce facts and share them with you. Here we go:

1. Lettuce shouldn’t be stored near apples, bananas, or any other ethylene-emitting fruits. Ethylene causes lettuce to ripen super fast and start to decay rapidly!

2. Lettuce is the second most popular fresh veggie in the US, behind only the potato! {And yes, potatoes are botanically classified as veggies, even though they are classified nutritionally as a starch.}

3. The average American eats about 30lbs of lettuce a year! That’s a whole lotta salads!

4. About 70% of the lettuce grown in the US comes from California {except from November through March when 90% of the nation’s lettuce come from Yuma, Arizona} and about 75% of all lettuce grown in the US is iceberg lettuce. Outside of the US, China is the world’s largest producer of lettuce, with almost half of the lettuce being consumed today grown by the Chinese.

5. Because lettuce is about 95% water, it has to be eaten fresh and cannot be frozen, dried, pickled or canned.

6. There are hieroglyphic records of lettuce being grown over 6000 years ago. Wowza!

7. Christopher Columbus was the person who actually introduced lettuce to America during his second voyage to the New World in 1494.

10. Many ancient Greeks believed that lettuce made you sleepy so they served it at the end of the meal. However, the super mean Roman Emperor, Domitian, served it at the beginning of his feasts to try to torture his guests by forcing them to stay awake in his presence.

Had you heard any of those fun facts before? Do you have any of your own to add? Is there a particular produce item you want to know more about? I take requests!

I love fact #10 🙂 And most of the world eats it last. A Hawaiian friend of mine explained that the fiber helps your other food “along”… I figure it all just gets mushed in together…

I LOVE lettuce, but have had no luck growing it here, it bolts in the summer… I’ve thought about growing it in winter and shoulder seasons, but then I forget… I do have some shady areas, but not a lot, really. Just up against the house, which still gets morning sun.